Transfigurations

Welcome to Transfigurations! This blog is intended to serve the orthodox Anglican community and the wider Christian community. We pray that all that is posted here will be faithful to the Scriptures as the inspired word of God, speak the truth in love, edify, bless and transform this local body of Christ, and be an impetus for revival, repentance, prayer and intercession!

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Albert Mohler: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Reality of the Gospel

March 25, 2016

The secular world has done its best to make a mess of Christmas, but it has largely ignored our celebration of the Resurrection. Where commercialism intrudes, it comes in the forms of eggs and chicks and rabbits–none of which claim any connection with the Resurrection. The fact is, the secular world will attempt to domesticate, commercialize, and tame the babe in the manger–but it will run at breakneck speed from the cross and the empty tomb.

That cross stands as condemnation on all human attempts at self-righteousness, and the fallen world will do all within its power to hide the cross from sight. The empty tomb is the seal and confirmation of the cross, and the world will shield its eyes.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead separates from all mere religion–whatever its form. Christianity without the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is merely one religion among many. “And if Christ is not risen,” said the Apostle Paul, “then our preaching is empty and your faith is in vain” [1 Corinthians 15:14]. Furthermore, “You are still in your sins!” [v. 17b]. Paul could not have chosen stronger language. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” [v. 19].

Yet, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been under persistent attacks since the Apostolic age. Why? Because it is the central confirmation of Jesus’ identity as the incarnate Son of God, and the ultimate sign of Christ’s completed work of atonement, redemption, reconciliation, and salvation. Those who oppose Christ, whether first century religious leaders or twentieth century secularists, recognize the Resurrection as the vindication of Christ against His enemies.

Those who would attack the Church and reject its gospel must direct their arrows at the most crucial truth claim of the New Testament and the disciples: That Jesus Christ, having suffered death on a cross, though sinless, having borne the sins of those He came to save, having been buried in a sealed and guarded grave, was raised by the power of God on the third day.

As Paul well understood, Christianity stands or falls with the empty grave. If Christ is not raised, we are to be pitied, for our faith is in vain. Those who would preach a resurrectionless Christianity have exchanged the truth of the gospel for a lie. But, asserted Paul, Christ is risen from the dead. Our faith is not in vain, but is in the risen Lord. He willingly faced death on a cross and defeated death from the grave. The Resurrection is the ultimate sign of God’s vindication of His Son... the restimage

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali on the Lehore massacre

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali on the Lehore massacre

At least 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a blast went off near a playground in a park crowded with families. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said it deliberately targeted Lahore's Christian minority during Easter celebrations. The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, is the current president of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue (OXTRAD). It's an organisation which works in areas where the Christian church is at risk of persecution. He spoke to Newsday's Andrew Peach. BBC-here

Monday, March 28, 2016

Did Easter change you?

It can be so easy for Easter to be a moment in time and not a moment that changes time. Our experience with Christ should change our lives. We shouldn’t experience the resurrection and then just go back to the day to day lives we lead unchanged. Life should be different because of the grace of Christ. Did Easter change you, or are you back to the daily grind? Jesus wants more from us than to just experience the joy of the resurrection - He wants us to live changed lives! ...Don Crane image

Obama to attend opening of US largest mosque; Obama: 'Our Most Important Partners Are American Muslims'...more

Most of the dead and injured are believed to be Christian women and children.

The blast took place a few yards from a packed children's playground...Hindu extremists attack Anglican church
Four Hindu extremists have been arrested by police in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu after they vandalized a newly built church. On 12 March 2016 a mob of Hindu activists overpowered a police guard and burst into a worship service at the Church of South India’s parish in Kalapatti...

Obama to attend opening of US largest mosque ...Located in Lanham, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, the Center includes a mosque and other facilities including a cultural center, gift shop, coffee house, and guest house. The mosque, built in accordance with Ottoman architecture, will be inaugurated by Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama on April 2. Although there are many mosques in the US, this is the only one that has two minarets...Obama: 'Our Most Important Partners Are American Muslims' ..."In that effort, our most important partners are American Muslims. That's why we have to reject any attempt to stigmatize Muslim-Americans, and their enormous contributions to our country and our way of life...

Friday, March 25, 2016

Easter Sunday 2016

The astonishing event of the resurrection of Jesus is essentially an event of love: the Father’s love in handing over his Son for the salvation of the world; the Son’s love in abandoning himself to the Father’s will for us all; the Spirit’s love in raising Jesus from the dead in his transfigured body. And there is more: the Father’s love which "newly embraces" the Son, enfolding him in glory; the Son’s love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity. From today’s solemnity, in which we relive the absolute, once-and-for-all experience of Jesus’s resurrection, we receive an appeal to be converted to Love; we receive an invitation to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness, and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is "gentle and lowly in heart", who is "rest for our souls" ...Benedict XVI image

Good Friday 2016

The blood of Jesu’s crossWas never shed in vain;There is not any lossOf His most precious pain:This is the great, the finished planTo open heaven’s door for man. Let all bow down and ownThe sacrificèd Lamb!Among all titles knownHis is the greatest name:Praise, laud, and blessing to our Lord,Let Him be evermore adored! ...William Williams image

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Holy Thursday 2016

Then He poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. -John 13:5

The Lord Jesus loves his people so much, that every day he is still doing for them much that is analogous to washing their soiled feet. Their poorest actions he accepts; their deepest sorrow he feels; their slenderest wish he hears, and their every transgression he forgives. He is still their servant as well as their Friend and Master....humbly, patiently, he yet goes about among his people with the basin and the towel. He does this when he puts away from us day by day our constant infirmities and sins....It is a great act of eternal love when Christ once for all absolves the sinner, and puts him into the family of God; but what condescending patience there is when the Saviour with much long-suffering bears the oft recurring follies of his wayward disciple; day by day, and hour by hour, washing away the multiplied transgressions of his erring but yet beloved child!....While we find comfort and peace in our Lord’s daily cleansing, its legitimate influence upon us will be to increase our watchfulness, and quicken our desire for holiness. Is it so? ...CH Spurgeonimage

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Learn much of the Lord Jesus...

Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief. Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms. Cry after divine knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding. Seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasure. ...Robert Murray M’Cheyne image

Isis claims responsibility for Brussels attacks ...more

Europe's Fear Of 'Islamophobia' Led Directly To The Belgium Attacks ...Here we come to the crux of the problem. How is it that in a prosperous European country there can be enough support within the Muslim community for a man who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS, has already successfully completed one terrorist attack and is planning others, to be protected and aided?

The answer is that this is a problem of Europe’s own creating—and it’s not going away. Beginning in the post-World War II era, Europe was in need of workers to pad its depleted work force. A natural place to look was North Africa, in former colonies of Spain and France. While it was assumed that migration would be short-term, the reality is that the men who came to work stayed, and later brought over their families. Europe made no plan for how to house and assimilate these families (see Christopher Caldwell’s excellent book, “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe,” for an in-depth discussion of this topic).

More to the point, Europe was uncomfortable asking its Muslim communities to assimilate. European leaders felt that would be too reminiscent of the colonial era. Their guilt and newfound “enlightenment” guided them to leave these people to their communities, culture, and religion. At the same time, however, they also ostracized them. What resulted was tight-knit majority-Muslim enclaves often on the outskirts of major European cities (like Saint Denis on the outer edge of Paris, where one of the Paris attackers was found)....

April 2016: Temple of Baal will come to Times Square NEXT month, the Temple of Baal will come to Times Square. Reproductions of the 50-foot arch that formed the temple’s entrance are to be installed in New York and in London, a tribute to the 2,000-year-old structure that the Islamic State destroyed last year in the Syrian town of Palmyra. The group’s rampage through Palmyra, a city that reached its peak in the second and third century A.D., enraged the world, spurring scholars and conservationists into action. Numerous nongovernmental organizations are now cataloging and mapping damaged cultural heritage sites in the region...

Anne Kennedy: Lament Over Brussels ...We have deluded ourselves, in the west, for a while now. It probably makes sense that somewhere like Bamako–dusty and chaotic–would be assaulted and bombed. But Paris? Brussels? The many miles of smooth, gracious architecture, the politesse and grace of the person handing you a big paper cone of French Fries. We thought we were good. We thought our calm quiet speech would calm and quiet the world.

And it hasn’t. Turns out we are not immune to evil. That chaos is happy to go anywhere and disturb everyone. And we flap around for who to blame and what to do. But meanwhile, the cross of Jesus has been abandoned, a relic in those glorious temples of forgotten belief...

Introducing Christ Church's Rector-elect, Fr. Paul Donison On Monday, March 14, 2016 the Vestry unanimously approved The Rev. Canon Paul Donison as Rector-elect of Christ Church. As Rector-elect, he will succeed Fr. David Roseberry as Rector of Christ Church later this year after immigrating to Plano, Texas.

Fr. Paul and his family are coming to us from St. Peter & Paul’s Anglican Church in Ottawa, Canada where he has been serving as Rector since 2009. Previous to his current church, Paul served as Rector of parishes in Northern British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Eastern Ontario. He and his wife Monika have four daughters: Anabel, Sophie-Jane, Erika, and Kirralee...

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Ride On, Ride On In Majesty!

Ride on, ride on in majesty!Hear all the tribes hosanna cry; O Savior meek, your road pursue, With palms and scattered garments strewn.Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die. O Christ, your triumphs now begin O’er captive death and conquered sin.Ride on, ride on in majesty! The hosts of angels in the sky Look down with sad and wondering eyes To see the approaching sacrifice.Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; Bow your meek head to mortal pain; Then take, O Christ, your power and reign.-Henry H. Milman image

The Anglican Church in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya will not participate in the upcoming ACC meeting

THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA: OUR PERSPECTIVE

The Church of Nigeria was one of the Provinces that protested against the consecration of Gene Robinson (an active homosexual clergyman in New Hampshire), by The Episcopal Church USA, and the promulgation of a liturgy for blessing of same sex union; boycotted the Lambeth Conference 2008, and organized the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON 2008), in Jerusalem. A remarkable legacy of that conference is the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration.

Since then, the theological position of the Church of Nigeria on the human sexuality palaver raging in the Anglican Communion is by no means ambiguous. In pursuance of its position, it has had to amend its constitution to emphasize the basis of our relationship with any other Province or church namely:

The Church of Nigeria shall be in full communion with all Anglican Churches, Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the Lord has commanded in His holy word and as the same are received as taught in the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662 and in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.

In other words, the amendment places emphasis on the “Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and The word of God rather than, and instead of, historical institutions. It was intended to save the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) from derailment in the context of challenges engendered by theological ambivalence such as the present human sexuality controversy illustrates.

In further pursuance of that same amendment, the Church of Nigeria resolved to break communion with The Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada (not on account of redefinition), but on the practice, promotion and advocacy of homosexuality and its allied practices.

As part of the stance of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), it resolved not to attend any future conference or meeting where the above named two Provinces will sit and participate in discussion. However, the January 2016 Primates meeting in Canterbury was considered an exception. Thus, the GAFCON and Global South resolved to attend.

In spite of the hollow restrictions placed on The Episcopal Church, the Presiding Bishop of TEC and the Chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council have avowed that the Primates had no authority to take that decision. During the Canterbury meeting itself, the way and manner in which those who hold the orthodox view of human sexuality and marriage were spoken of by the authorities, and denounced as “homophobic”, left no one in doubt that we were in the wrong place. In fact, the authorities believe that patience was being exercised to enable the communion to bring up the scripture-believers gradually to embrace the homosexual doctrine. Thus, the Anglican Communion’s journey is very uncertain for the orthodox. They are walking into a well-rehearsed scheme to gradually apply persuasion, subtle blackmail, coercion on any group still standing with the Scriptural Provision as we know it, to join the straight jacket of the revisionists and be politically correct. Somehow, they are succeeding!

At this point we find great wisdom in the attitude of the British Government in relation to the European Union, It has not joined the Euro Zone; it did not join the Schengen conglomerate. Now the British Prime Minister is asking for a “Special Status” in the European Union for the United Kingdom.

The Anglican Communion should begin to think in that direction for those Provinces that may never, for obvious reasons, embrace the sexual culture being promoted by some Provinces of the Church over and against the Bible as we received it. We need a “Special Status”.

In summary, as long as we are now candidates for whom every opportunity in the Anglican Communion should be explored to gradually teach us to embrace the new sex culture, it will be unwise to deliberately walk into a well-prepared camp of recruitment, blackmail, indoctrination and toxic relationship.

Therefore, we regret our inability to attend the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

We continue to pray for God’s Church to return to the Holy Bible, for its faith and practice.

The Most Rev’d Nicholas D. Okoh
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All NigeriaFound here

"Thirteen years later, the Primates of the Anglican Communion gathered in January 2016 in Canterbury to discuss what to do about the fact that not only had TEC torn the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level in 2003, but they have since changed the definition of marriage to no longer be a lifelong union between one man and one woman. We were cautiously optimistic that the tear in the fabric of our communion could be repaired and betrayal healed."

Kenya’s Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala said “there can be no true walking together with those who persistently refuse to walk in accordance with God’s word, and the Kenyan province will not participate in the forthcoming meeting,” noting that their boycott would stand as long as Michael Curry, the presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church, continued to ignore the sanctions and refused to reconsider his stance on same-sex marriage...

Tracking major cyberattacks around the world; How Obergefell Really Happened...more

Planned Parenthood President To Speak At Georgetown University Georgetown University is our nation’s oldest Roman Catholic university. I am an alumnus of the law school at Georgetown, and was blessed by the opportunity to study with many outstanding fellow students and faculty. For a number of years, I also served as one of the alumni interviewers for prospective students, and was impressed with the caliber of younger people who wished to attend its law school. Although my Georgetown education opened many doors for me, I am not a financial supporter of the University presently because the University has taken positions on issues that I believe are antithetical to traditional Christian teaching...

South Sudan: UN Reports Campaign of Killing and Rape ...The investigation accused all sides in the country's civil war of targeting civilians for murder and rape but said the army and government-allied forces were most to blame for what it described as "one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world".

"The report contains harrowing accounts of civilians suspected of supporting the opposition, including children and the disabled, killed by being burned alive, suffocated in containers, shot, hanged from trees or cut to pieces," the UN human rights office said in a statement on Friday...

How Obergefell Really Happened
...It is abundantly clear that homosexual propagandists knew they were not large enough in numbers to change the views of Middle America. In modern political parlance, they had no ground game. So, they took to the air. And how seductive TV is. Comedian Dana Carvey once said it’s so powerful you could put an orange on NBC for an hour every Wednesday night at 8 pm and eventually people would point and say, “Hey, isn’t that the orange on NBC?”

Is there solid social science research to back this claim, that television has an effect on social mores in general and on this issue in particular? A number of studies say so and so does the fact that advertisersspent $73 billionon TV advertising last year. Advertisers are convinced that being on TV influences behavior...

Starting with the December 2015 cyberattack on Ukraine’s utility sector and working its way backwards, the interactive site catalogues hundreds of cyberattacks, data breaches and other malicious cyber-events dating to April 2000...

Nancy Reagan and God
...Nancy mollified some of these concerns late in the presidency when tearfully addressing an evangelical youth gathering, recounting how her husband several years earlier had urged her dying, troubled stepfather who had lost has faith to trust in the Lord, which led her stepfather to die peacefully. Her mother had been Presbyterian but her stepfather, after being defrauded as a child out of a Sunday school prize in favor of a rich boy, had rejected Christianity until his apparent deathbed conversion. Nancy’s mother was Presbyterian. Reagan was raised Disciples of Christ but after marrying Nancy began eventually attending Belle Aire Presbyterian, an affiliation continuing until their deaths. As a widow worshipping alone in recent years she invited secret service agents to join her in singing from the hymnal. Rev. Moomaw, a friend and pastor of over 50 years, although now himself elderly, presided over a small family service for Nancy before the public funeral. His successor, Rev. Michael Wenning, who died in 2011, was also close to the Reagans and presided at the President’s funeral...

Saturday, March 12, 2016

LUFFTON, S.C. - March 12, 2016 – The Diocese of South Carolina is considering affiliating with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

The Diocese’s Affiliation Task Force recommended the association during the 225th annual Diocesan Convention in Bluffton this weekend. Affiliation would require the Diocese to approve affiliation in two future conventions. More than 350 clergy and delegates representing 53 churches across the southern and coastal part of the state gathered for the convention.

Before affiliation the Task Force will host meetings throughout the Diocese to brief clergy and church members about the benefits of affiliation and ask questions about the possible move.
Founded in 1785, the Diocese was one of eight dioceses across the country to help form the Episcopal Church in 1789. It separated from the Episcopal Church in 2012. ACNA is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, whose membership now exceeds 85 million worshipers in more than 165 countries.

ACNA, formed in 2009, unites 112,000 Anglicans in 1,000 congregations and 32 dioceses across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Diocese of South Carolina has 23,000 members... the rest

Saturday, March 05, 2016

When the inspired, God-breathed verses of the Bible...

When the inspired, God-breathed verses of the Bible become our prayer, something powerful occurs. We are praying the anointed words of God. These prayers will release the move of God’s Spirit in our lives in a more precise and effective way than our own random vocabulary. It’s the Hebrews 4:12 principle which says: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” ...John Paul Jackson

The Abortion Lobby’s Deathly Shibboleths ...It doesn’t take much effort to see. Abortion-on-demand advocacy has enjoyed a steady stream of philological victories since Roe v Wade speciously classified fetal death as a “right to privacy.” Catchphrases like “reproductive freedom” and “safe, legal, and rare” have (mostly) served their intended purpose: To cast the moral question of abortion as an issue of common liberty vs oppressive ideology.

But euphemism cuts both ways. For some members of the abortion lobby, the abundance of the heart has poured forth a little too revealingly.

Consider first this article,written by Hannah Smothers and published in Cosmopolitan. The article concerns itself with “dismal numbers” from the state of Texas. You’d be forgiven for assuming “dismal numbers” mentioned here are in reference to poverty statistics, or violent crime, or evangelicals who support Donald Trump. You’d be mistaken.

They’re a reference to babies. Not the number of babies who haven’t been born due to declining fertility, mind you, nor the number of babies born with disease. No, the “dismal numbers” of Ms. Smothers’ article are the numbers of babies who have been born in Texas since the state moved to defund Planned Parenthood.

Zika caught 'killing' brain cells
...The team from the Johns Hopkins, Florida State and Emory universities infected a range of tissue samples with Zika virus for two hours and then analysed the samples three days later.

The virus was able to infect up to 90% of neural progenitor cells in a sample leading to nearly a third of cells dying and the growth of the rest being disrupted.

A similar effect in a developing brain could have devastating results...

Thursday, March 03, 2016

MSNBC Fires Host Who Wore Tampon Earrings and Compared Abortion to Cancer Treatment ...Though MSNBC is often known for its liberal stance, Harris-Perry took that to a peculiar extreme. LifeNews has reported her wearing tampon earrings in response to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s signing of a bill banning late-term abortions in Texas. She explained that she was wearing them as a response to Texas officials’ “confiscation of tampons at the Texas legislature that abortion activists planned to throw at legislators,” following the bill’s vote...

Residents have said state Highway 80 has become a favorite for Mexican cartel drug runners who manage to navigate out of the Peloncillo Mountains along the Arizona-New Mexico border. They want an even more increased presence from the U.S. Border Patrol...

As the FBI looks to wrap up its investigation in the coming months, agents are likely to want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, how it was set up, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails, current and former officials said...

Canon Phil Ashey: Canadian Bishops on Same Sex Marriage Rites

posted March 3, 2012

Excerpt:
So where does that leave the Anglican Church of Canada on the possibility of changing its doctrine of marriage, along the same lines as TEC?

1. The Bishops left the door open to changing the doctrine of marriage piecemeal, by dioceses exercising “local option” to provide Church blessings for same-sex couples. “We continue to wonder whether a legislative procedure is the most helpful way of dealing with these matters,” they wrote, keeping the door open for the status quo to continue, for dioceses to establish “facts on the ground.”

2.They committed the Anglican Church of Canada to further study of the matter: “In our deliberations, we affirmed a commitment to continuing conversations and engagement with the Report of the Commission on the Marriage Canon, and to achieving the greatest pastoral generosity possible.” We call this “kicking the can down the road.” It doesn’t address the problem—it merely postpones a decision that may already have been made. Are they waiting, perhaps, until the three years have passed for relational consequences on TEC? There are echoes here of the same language TEC used along the way—“generous pastoral provision”-that hint at an already projected outcome.

3.The Bishops allowed other leaders within the Church to challenge their special responsibility to guard the faith, order and doctrine of the Church, without any reply to date. Bishops throughout the Communion of Anglican Churches have a well-recognized responsibility to teach, uphold and safeguard the faith and doctrine of the Church, and to order its worship and liturgical practices accordingly (see Principles of Canon law in the Churches of the Anglican Communion (2008), Principles 37.4, 48.3, 56.7-18 and 60.1). In the same way that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been slow, if not silent, to defend this responsibility of the Primates gathering in January, so the Canadian bishops have been silent in response to the challenge by the co-Chair of the Planning Team for the General Synod. This weakens the authority of bishops, in synod and out. Their silence raises the question “if bishops have not the authority to guard the faith, doctrine and order of the Church, who does?”

4.Finally, by their own admission, these Canadian bishops are “unable to come to a common mind about what the Spirit is saying to the Church.” Really? From which “Spirit” are they seeking discernment? The Spirit of Jesus Christ, whose mind is undivided, as Paul so powerfully expounds in Philippians 2:5-11? The Spirit who inspired God’s revelation from creation, in Holy Scripture, that God created humanity “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) and that marriage is a holy estate between a man “who shall leave his father and mother” to be united to his wife so that “the two will become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)? Were they seeking discernment from the same Spirit who inspired Jesus to cite this ordinance in Matthew 19:5, and in the very next verse to emphasize its holiness and permanence by declaring “Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Matt. 19:6)?

Or were they seeking discernment from some other Spirit, or the Spirit of the age?...

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Anglican Unscripted Episode 220

Mar 2, 2016Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Each Episode Kevin, George, Allan and Peter bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please Donate - http://anglicanink.com/donate

A.S. Haley: Bishop Bruno Tries to Serve Two Masters
Under California law, a religious body or organization may create a unique form
of corporation, called a corporation sole, whose principal purpose is to
allow the parent organization (which may or may not itself be incorporated) to
hold title to real property. A corporation sole is different from the usual
variety of that entity: it has a single officer, director and shareholder, who
are all one and the same person, called "the incumbent of the corp sole." The
governing body makes the rules for who can be the incumbent. Typically it is
that body's bishop or other spiritual leader.

Bishops may come and go,
but corporations sole do not. Under law, their existence is perpetual -- and
that is why they are a good vehicle for maintaining ownership of real property.
And like any religious organization, they are not-for-profit, and pay no income
taxes.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that Bishop J. Jon
Bruno of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is at odds with his own Diocese
over the disclosure of financial information concerning the corporation sole of
which he is the incumbent. (In order to avoid a vote on an outside audit of his
corp sole at the diocesan convention last December, Bishop Bruno promised to
disclose its financial statements.)

Readers will remember that +Bruno
and his corp sole became
embroiled in litigation last summer over the bishop's plans to sell the
valuable, near-oceanfront real estate of the congregation of St. James the
Great, in Newport Beach, California -- after he won a lawsuit to recover that
property from the ACNA congregation that voted to leave his Diocese. The
original developer who gave the property to the Episcopal Diocese for the
building of a local church had placed a restrictive covenant on it, which
specified that if the property ever ceased to be used for church purposes, it
would revert to the developer...

Looking for Britain's future leaders? Try evensong ...College chaplains have seen a steady but noticeable increase in attendances at the early evening services which combine contemplative music with the 16th Century language of the Book of Common Prayer.

Chaplains say the mix of music, silence and centuries-old language appears to have taken on a new appeal for a generation more used to instant and constant communications, often conducted in 140 characters rather than the phrases of Cranmer...Student Bible clubs temporarily suspended in Ohio after atheist group files complaint ...The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) earlier wrote a letter to Superintendent Steve Wigton of the Lancaster City Schools to complain about outside adults conducting Bible studies during lunch time at different schools.

"It is our understanding that bible study groups meet during the lunch period at Lancaster High School and Sherman Middle School, and before school at Thomas Ewing Middle School," the atheist group said in its letter based on the listing of the clubs on the Faith Memorial Church website.

It said that "public school district must ensure that student religious groups are genuinely student-initiated and student-run, and that outside adults do not regularly participate in the clubs."...

What the Dutch learned during the Nazi occupation ...That medical procedure was called ‘euthanasia’, which means ‘good death’ in Greek. Indeed, what could possibly be better than killing a few thousand for the noble goal of producing a GM race of unbounded mental and physical health?

The underlying belief that it’s neither God nor the person but the state that has the ultimate sovereignty over human life is common to every brand of socialism, national, international or ‘democratic’ (‘democratic socialism’ is the oxymoron to end all oxymorons). The wording will differ, as will the scale on which this principle is implemented. But the principle will remain the same.

Hence in 2002 Seyss-Inquart’s former bailiwick became the first European country to legalise euthanasia, albeit only for terminally ill patients expressing a “voluntary and well-considered request” to be done in...

Europe's 'cure' for autism is euthanasia ...According to an analysis of 66 of the 110 cases from 2011 to 2014, by psychiatrist Scott Kim of the National Institutes of Health and two colleagues, Dutch psychiatric patients were often euthanized despite disagreement among consulting physicians as to whether they met legal criteria. In 37 cases, patients refused possibly beneficial treatment, and doctors proceeded anyway.

The Kim report, published Feb. 10 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, undercuts the very notion of a “voluntary and well-considered” request for death from a patient who is, by definition, cognitively and/or emotionally troubled.

Dutch doctors have honored the request for lethal injection of a seemingly lucid, physically healthy woman in her 70s who said her life had become “meaningless” after her husband was euthanized a year earlier for a terminal physical illness. And they have done the same for people who were in the grip of delusions or hearing voices...

Jun 1, 2013Bus company De Lijn has jumped onto the digital art animation bandwagon with their brand new ads. Get the kids and enjoy their series of "It's smarter to travel in groups" commercials - they'll definitely make you smile.

A Lenten Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Foley Beach

To the Bishops, Clergy, and People of the Anglican Church in North America:

Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins! His mercy endures forever. Amen.

As we travel our Lenten pilgrimage, repenting of our sins, reconciling with our brothers and sisters, reproducing followers of Jesus, and expressing relentless compassion to those in our communities, I would like to ask you to consider an important project for your community.

I would like to invite you to gather with members of our congregations on the steps of your county court house or city hall, and there pray together for your community, your neighborhoods, your country, and your leaders; asking God to pour out His Spirit to lead them to know and honor Jesus Christ. At a time of your own choosing between now and June 30, and I am asking that you take seriously the admonitions of our Lord and the Apostles in Scripture to pray together that "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." Don't make a big splash about it; just go and claim your neighborhoods and communities for the purposes of God in the Name of Jesus.

People all around us are suffering and in crisis. They are hurting and spiritually desolate, suffering from sickness, heartache, and broken relationships; some without employment and hope, living in fear and confusion. We have the ability to help them in Jesus Christ. This begins with our intentional prayers.

In the United States we are in the midst of the election process not just for the new President, but for many judges, governors, senators, mayors, city council members, and representatives. This should be a constant concern of our prayers.

Again, between now and June 30, gather with members of your congregation at the County Courthouse or City Hall, and pray together. Please let me know how it goes.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:16f)